Owl "Thank You" Card -FREE Printable/Download!

Thank You Owl Card.zip

I thought you all might like a this fun and FREE printable just in time for Thanksgiving! These are perfect to write those sweet thank you notes.

Here is a preview of the printable. You can go ahead and download this by clicking on the link above.

You can Also just click on the image twice and then print it out. The quality will be okay. But if you want it to look sharper and more detailed you will want to print it from the downloaded file.

Don’t forget to unzip the folder after you've downloaded it. You can do this by right clicking on the folder.

I hope you enjoy. and...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Ridding the Restlessness in your little Rascals!

Some times(not always) I have other mothers come up to me and ask me how I can get my two boys to behave while shopping and waiting at places of business (my kids aren’t always well behaved in public, I promise) Truth is When they are really restless and start getting into things I pull out my secret weapon... "I spy and/or the ABC games" This works out almost instantly to redirect their attention to something less destructive.

• I SPY: For those few who don't know how to play this or have been out of practice since your own childhood.-Take turns picking out an object in the room. So if it were a plant you would say I spy with my little eye something green. Then have your kids try to guess what it is. Who ever guess first gets to be the "I Spy" person. If after a few minutes the object cant be guessed. Tell them what it was and then have a second turn and try to pick something a bit easier.
• ABC's Game for young kids- Take turn naming things that begin with the letters of the Alphabet. For young kids have them name things that begin with "A" sound. You would say something like "What starts with 'Aaaa'?" and so forth. I play this with my 3 year old and he loves it.

I’ve used these games in the car, restaurants, shopping, waiting for haircuts, and even once at a wedding. So next time your little ones are starting to act up because shopping is boring and takes to long try out these Restlessness Ridding games. Both you and your little ones will love it.

Do you have a tip for keeping your kids from getting too restless?

Easy Threading Craft (For Young Kids)

 My two boys can get very rowdy when they don't have things to do. So we are always coming up with new low-2-no cost activities and crafts for them to stay busy. And this is one of my favorite. And what I love most about this craft is its very kids hands on.

You can have your child pick what kind of image they would like to thread. It can be colored, cut out and they can even help with the whole punching. Plus they can re-thread this over and over to make different designs.

Need:

Scissors
Whole puncher
1 sheet colored paper

1 sheet Card stock

Yarn

Crayons
Glue

1. Fist glue your colored paper to the card stock.

2.Cut out desired shape

3.Color/draw designs on the cut out image,

4.Punch wholes out around design about 1/4 inch or more apart and 1/2 inch from the edge of paper

5. Cut yarn twice the length of your  image

It helped my little boys to see me thread the image first so they knew what to do.

Here are some Ideas for the shapes you could use.

• Football
• Christmas Tree
• Stocking
• Tree
• Clothes
• Animals
• Cars and Trucks
• People or Dolls
• Gift/Present

I hope you have a lot of fun with this,

Happy Birthday To My Marvelous Mate!

Top 10 Reasons Why Im Glad You Were Born

1.Who Else Would Do Our Laundry?

2. I love watching you read to our sons.

3. Even though you shouldn’t, you love spoiling me rotten. It would be your favorite pastime if you had the money.

4. You go beyond the call of duty with my brothers and sister and would do anything for them.

5. What other guy could I find who loves watching "Grey's Anatomy" as much as I do? (Oops, I wasn’t supposed to tell!) :)

6. It touches my heart that you tear up just about any time you listen to the song "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins

7. You’re my live in spell checker.

8. When I’m sick I’m a terrible patient... and you’re my wonderful...NURSE Doctor!

9. You enjoy a wide range of activities from White Water River Rafting to Watching a good Ballet. (It probably a good thing that none of his guy friends read my blog)

10. Even after two pregnancies misshaped my body, I still catch you checking me out.

Your one of a kind and I love you.

Happy Birthday!

The Adventures Of Making Our 2009 Christmas Card

Getting this "Chistmas Card" done is what I basically did for the entire day yesterday. Although you may be thinking to yourself "Oh how cute!" The experience of capturing these "Cute" moments in time was far from it! First off I’d like to say taking photos of three and four year old boys should have its own merit badge in scouts.

As if getting my boys dressed, cleaned, hair combed, and into the mini van still looking dressed, cleaned, and with hair still combed is not a huge feat in itself. But we had the added pleasure of searching for location, preventing distraction, and making sounds and faces in order to produce smiles from unwilling participants...sounds and faces you pray your kids are to young to remember in order to avoid future blackmailing resources.

So this is how our "Cute Christmas Card Photo Shoot" went down...

As soon as we got to our shoot location a stray dog came running over with a stick in its mouth. Ekk! Dogs+Stick+Boys= Mess=Mom with camera+Furrowed brows+Strangers staring. So hubby jumped in and tried to distract Dog by playing fetch which only resulted in photos where the three and four year old faces where facing the camera but their eye balls where stretched clear right so they could watch the fetching. A few minutes later the dog went away but then immediately following the dogs departure a stray kitten came over and wanted to rub all over the boys. Finally the hubby just had to hold the persistent kitten in order to keep it from hopping up on the kids while I was just trying to take a decent photo. A few minutes after that I decided it might be a cute photo op if my little boys sat and posed on this nearby fence. But the whole 2 minutes they were sitting on the fence they just had these terrified looks on their faces like they were going to fall to their death a whole foot below. As if things weren’t going bad enough I then accidentally stepped on one of the presents we were using as a prop... crushing it. By this time we were all getting agitated and the brightness of the sun started making the kids eyes water. So when we told the kids to smile they would only bare their teeth so it looked like angry snarling. The hubby and I then began making silly faces and noises in hopes that the now elusive smile would soon appear. We soon discovered that the only thing that could make them smile was making obscene farting noises with our tongues and saying "Eww... That’s stinky"!

I would have liked to said this story had a happy ending However, after a few minutes the obscene farting noises wouldn’t even work anymore. So in a huff I called it quits and we went home.
Miraculously we did manage a handful of useable photos.

Mmm Mmm Good Chili! Guest Blogger... The "Hubby"

 Mmm Mmm Good Chili!

Of all my faults cooking hasn't seemed to be one of them (unless it's on the grill :). It's getting to be colder and colder outside as we approach the holiday season so soups seem to be a popular request in our home. Just a few weeks ago I found an amazing recipe for Chili. Below is the recipe. We chose to serve it in bread bowls which turned out to be an amazingly delicious idea! The recipe was taken from Fix It and Enjoy It Cookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good. The book is stuffed with great recipies, I recommend it.

Chili Soup with Potatoes

Makes 8-10 Servings

Prep Time: 15-30 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 Hour and 20 Minutes

2 lbs. Ground Beef

1 Medium Onion, Chopped

1 Cup Chopped Celery

2 tsp. Salt

2 10 oz. Cans of Baked Beans

1 qt. Tomato Juice

1/4 tsp. Pepper

1 tsp. Chili Powder

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

4 Medium Sized Potatoes, Cooked Chilled and Shredded (I used frozen hashbrowns)

1. In a large stockpot brown together beef, onion, celery, and salt.

2. Add beans, tomato juice, pepper, chili powder, and sugar.

3. Simmer 1 hour.

4. Meanwhile, cook the 4 potatoes, peel, chill, and shred. (Or thaw out the frozen hashbrowns.) Add potatoes to chili mixture at the end of the hour and heat thoroughly.

5. Eat the amazing concoction!

Give it a try, your whole family will love it!

The Hubby,

"I Pray My Sanity To Keep" A poem for mom's

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my sanity to keep.

For if some peace I do not find,

I'm pretty sure I'll lose my mind.

I pray I find a little quiet

Far from the daily family riot

May I lie back--not have to think

about what they're stuffing down the sink,

or who they're with, or where they're at

and what they're doing to the cat.

I pray for time all to myself

(did something just fall off a shelf?)
To cuddle in my nice, soft bed

(Oh no, another goldfish--dead!)

Some silent moments for goodness sake

(Did I just hear a window break?)

And that I need not cook or clean--

(well heck, I've got the right to dream)

Yes now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray my wits about me keep,

But as I look around I know--

I must have lost them long ago!

-Unknown

"Foodie" FREE Digital Scrapbooking Kit!

Foodie Kit.zip

This kit contains 5 papers and 30 elements.

I’ve wanted to do a cooking/chef kit for sometime now. I have not been able to find very many online available for free. So I just made my own and am now sharing it with you all.

I'd love to see what you do with this kit. You can email me your creations at everydaymomideas@hotmail.com

I hope all your holiday cooking goes smoothly and comes out Delicious!

Kids Can Say The Darndest Things

• 
  
  JACK (age 3) was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister... After a while he asked: 'Mom why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for cold milk?'
  
  
  

• MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was.. Granny replied she was so old she didn’t remember any more. Melanie said, 'If you don't remember you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six.'

• STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom good night. 'I love you so much that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window.'

• DJ (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: 'How much do I cost?'

• CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried when his Mom asked what was troubling him, he replied, 'I don't know what'll happen with this bed when I get married. How will my wife fit in it?'

• TAMMY(age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mom knew Tammy looked at her for a while and then asked, 'Why doesn't your skin fit your face?'

• James (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: 'The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to the flea?'

• The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget...This particular Sunday sermon....'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust...' He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter who was listening leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little four year old girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'

Winner of the $25 gift card to the ECO Store USA!

The Random Winner of the $25 Gift Card to the ECO Store USA is:

**Nicole**

From: http://ramblingsbynicolerenee.blogspot.com/

Congratulations!

I enjoyed reading all of your comments on your little luxuries and I'd like to give a big thank you to my new followers. Come back at the end of this month for a chance at another great giveaway!